FOR CAGES AND AVIARIES. 41 



The Rock Pigeon {Columba livia, Linn.). 



This Pigeon is the real origin of all our domestic breeds, 

 at least in this country, and not (as asserted by a writer who 

 also thought the dormouse was the progenitor of all the 

 rats and mice) the Stock Dove, which owes its English 

 name to quite another reason as already mentioned. 



The Rock Pigeon, like its domesticated descendants, 

 never perches in trees, at least among the small boughs, 

 for it has no grasping power in its toes, but sometimes it 

 will settle on a broad flat horizontal branch on which it 

 can obtain sure foothold. Nor does it nest in them, or 

 on the ground, but on ledges of rock, or in caves, and 

 very generally on the coast, showing that the tame breeds 

 have not deviated in this respect from their original; they 

 resemble it, too, in form, unless they are artificially bred 

 out of all resemblance to their ancestor, as, for example 

 the Fantails, Owls, Nuns, &c., of the fancier. They all have 

 a white patch over the tail, a black bar across the wing, 

 and a black ending to each of the tail feathers, exactly 

 after the manner of the wild Rock Pigeon, as can be seen 

 by watching the flocks of ownerless Pigeons that frequent 

 St. Paul's Cathedral, the British Museum, the Custom 

 House, and other public buildings in London. 



Everybody knows or has heard of the late Mr. Charles 

 Darwin's experiments with Pigeons, which he crossed and 

 re-crossed until at last he obtained birds that were 

 indistinguishable from their wild progenitors. This he 

 considered was a proof of the correctness of his theories 

 respecting the origin of species, although it really only 

 demonstrated that artificial selection created varieties, which 

 is quite a different thing, and was already well known to 

 systematic breeders. 



The Rock Pigeon is not as widely spread in this 

 country as the Ringdove, but it is more numerous than 

 the Stock Dove, no doubt on account of the inaccessible 

 nature of many of the places it frequents. Morris says it 

 occasionally breeds in old trees, quite twenty miles inland, 

 but this is entirely contrary to the experience of the present 

 writer, 



